Dangerous Games (Tempting SEALs)
by Lora Leigh
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Book Reviews of Dangerous Games (Tempting SEALs)
Book Review: 5 Klovers! Courtesy of CK2S Kwips & Kritiques
Summary: 5 Stars
Dangerous Games is my Recommended Read for February 2007!
Morganna has loved Clint practically her entire life. In spite of the fact that he pushes her away at every turn, she knows he feels something for her. But after years of waiting for him, she has finally resolved to move on with her life and find her own place in the world - without Clint McIntyre.
Clint has stayed away from Morganna, protecting her from his dangerous job, and his even more dangerous past. But when he returns home on leave and finds her in the most unexpected of places and in a very perilous position, he can neither ignore Morganna, nor his feelings for her. Finding her in his favorite BDSM club pushes every button his Dominant personality has, and challenges everything he thought he wanted...
But Morganna has been keeping secrets, too, and hers have put her very life in danger. Working undercover as a DEA agent has made her the prime target for the very same drug cartel that Clint's SEALS team has been working to bring down. The very same drug cartel that wants revenge on Clint...
Lora Leigh began her SEALs series with a short story in the anthology Honk if You Love Real Men. With Dangerous Games, she pens her first full-length SEALS novel, and leaves you panting for more!
Clint "Iceman" McIntyre is as dangerous and brooding as an Alpha male can get! He will push every button you have - at one moment he is the most aggravating man on earth, then he is as tender as you might wish a lover to be, and in the next moment you find your heart breaking for him and the pain he holds inside.
Morganna Chavez is the perfect foil for Clint, and a wonderful role model for women everywhere. She is independent, feisty, intelligent, kind-hearted, and definitely spirited. She calls Clint out at every turn when he is being bull-headed, but she knows just when to push him and when to back off. She picks her fights, and makes the moments count, and never ever lets him get away with anything! Her resolve to fight for Clint, for his soul even if she can't have his love, is heartening.
The story is thick with suspense as the pair work to uncover the identity of not only the villains pushing a dangerous date-rape drug in the clubs, but to also ferret out the identity of a mole intent on betraying them all. With each new release, Leigh becomes even more adept with the suspense genre, which is never more evident than in this book.
If you want plenty of action interlaced with a very spicy love story, you need to rush to the store right now and pick up your own copy of Lora Leigh's Dangerous Games!
Series Order:
Honk If You Love Real Men
Dangerous Games (Tempting SEALs)
Real Men Do It Better
Hidden Agendas (Tempting SEALs)
Killer Secrets (Tempting SEALs)
Rescue Me
Book Review: Too many errors smacked me in the face
Summary: 2 Stars
Lora Leigh's book has received some great reviews on here, but I simply can't get past the enormous errors printed on those pages. First of all, I felt like I fell into the story around Chapter 8 of a much longer work. Obviously this is the second book in the series, but there wasn't enough backstory to actually make me feel as though I understood what had happened previously. Characters popped up and faded away as Leigh needed them in or out of the story.
The errors...oh my. First of all, the story is about Navy SEALs. Why does Leigh write TWICE that the hero, Clint, joined the Army? The Army and the Navy are different branches of the military. She calls him "Special Forces" which is a group in the Army. She also has her hero drop out of high school at 17 and join the military...sorry, folks, that can't happen. Under the age of 18, a recruit must have the signature of his parents to join (I know, 'cause I did). Also, you must have at least a GED to join if you don't have a high school diploma.
Next we have a bunch of SEALs apparently stationed around Atlanta, GA because they all have apartments there. A very distinct part of joining the Navy and being a SEAL is the fact that you work around large bodies of water, such as the ocean. There is no ocean near Atlanta. That may be the reason that the real SEAL teams are based out of coastal Virginia and coastal California.
Leigh places her characters in a club in South Carolina. It's a two hour drive from Atlanta to the SC border. That seems like a long drive just for a hot nightclub.
And let's talk about the clubs that her SEALs frequent. They are BDSM clubs, and apparently it is a well-known fact that her SEALs have been partying here for years now. Only problem there is, half the stuff that happens in BDSM clubs is illegal according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Now, I understand that SEALs follow a slightly different set of rules, but no one would allow it to be so very well known that they go to BDSM clubs and possibly cause the loss of a career.
Another point I questioned...how did the hero come up with the $40,000 needed to gain exclusive entrance to one of the clubs at the same time that he was sending enough money to his mother that she could buy a house with it? Leigh never states what rank her hero has gained, but unless he's an Admiral, the money he is spending seems a bit more than his budget will allow.
Those were the most glaring problems I encountered. The drug operation that is running was slightly confusing to me, as were the intentions and actions of the bad guy.
The "erotic" aspect of the book was good: Leigh is deliberate in her sex scenes and adds plenty of emotional ground for her characters to cover while they're getting hot and heavy.
As a story, I would probably give the book three stars, but with all the errors I found, I'm stretching to give it two. Either Leigh's research or her editor should have picked up on these obvious problems.
Book Review: A must read!
Summary: 5 Stars
SEAL Clint McIntyre has wanted Morganna for ten years. Though he has ached with the need to possess her, he is unwilling to shatter her illusions of the happily ever after that he cannot offer. Consequently, he's kept his distance. However, when Morganna's life is threatened by unseen enemies, Clint will fight to protect her with every ounce of his being.
Morganna Chavez has been in love with Clint since she was 16 years old. She has tempted him every time he has been near, but to no avail. As a result, she has resigned herself to the fact that she will never be a part of his life. Unwilling to sacrifice her happiness any longer by yearning for something beyond her reach, Morganna embarks on a new career; a dangerous career that she conceals from Clint. When Clint discovers her new job, along with the danger stalking her, Morganna knows that fate is about to alter her life in an unforeseen way.
DANGEROUS GAMES by Lora Leigh has to be one of the most emotionally intense books I have read in a very long time. As I began to read, I eagerly anticipated a story containing the equation of Dominant Man + Submissive Woman = Match Made in Heaven. After all, a strong alpha-male hero is one of my favorite expectations when I pick up a Lora Leigh book. My equation, assumed with all good intentions, turned out to be much too simplistic for what this book delivered. There was more of everything; more action, more intensity, more chemistry and more heat.
Clint, in all of his manly glory and accoutrements, immediately had me quivering and wishing for a Navy SEAL all my own; alas, that was not meant to be as Clint was Morganna's alone whether he admitted it or not. Speaking of Morganna, she is an exceptionally strong heroine. This was the aspect that Ms. Leigh delivered over and above my expectations. Though she understands Clint is alpha and dominant, Morganna holds her own. Exceedingly stubborn when Clint is beating his chest the hardest, Morganna gives him a run for his money and I think it's glorious. Fully aware of Clint's feelings, Morganna has the strength to give him what he wants; or what he thinks he wants the most. His surrender to their relationship has to be one of the most beautiful love scenes I have ever had the fortune to read. I actually FELT their love pour from the pages.
I am overjoyed that Lora Leigh has once again penned a marvelous novel of suspense and raw passion. My heart immediately began to pine for these SEALS upon reading RENOS' CHANCE in last year's "Honk If You Love Real Men" anthology. DANGEROUS GAMES continues the zest I have for these wonderfully alpha men. I am on pins and needles with my legs crossed waiting on the next installment, FOR MAGGIE'S SAKE, and I fear the wait just might kill me!
Book Review: Typical LL plot, but strong characterization redeems it
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm no stranger to Lora Leigh - having read all her Bound/Pleasure series. This is my second in the SEAL series, which I haven't been able to read in order. I wasn't sure what to expect with the mixed reviews, but I liked this book. The plot is (of course) very similar to other LL books, more of a formula, but I thought she did the bad boy on the run from his lifetime true-love pretty well in this book. Clint is hot and very dominant, while Morganna is a well-drawn character who's dreamed of her brother's best friend for years. I liked the way she expressed her love, but made her needs clear and refused to let him bully and "dom" her. The relationship progresses at just the right speed, and feels right, unlike some of LL's books where you close the book wondering whether the relationship will survive the move beyond hot sex to picking the guy's socks up off the floor.
Clint's character also has depth, but he is the typical abused child grown up to use sex as an outlet for the pain he can't express. This is a major theme in most of LL's books. I would like to have seen a little more dom/sub play in this (since we were titillated by it) but I did get the author's premise - that with Morganna, his emotional self was exposed and he needed to hold and love her more than his need for control and dominance.
SPOILER WARNING HERE!!!
Other SEAL/SPECIAL OPS characters from the series that come into play, Ian, Reno and Raven, Kell, Mace, etc. Nathan's supposed death is mentioned. The evil drug lord Diego Fuentes is the villian, but others go down in this book.
The sex scenes were hot, but fairly typical - all except the whole butt-plug thing. I mean, dom or no - it seemed a little creepy and maybe gratuitous that he'd use this the very first time they had sex.
Also - did I miss something, or did the fact that a vasectomy can be reversed (in many cases) go unexplained? The vasectomy reveal and subsequent thoughts about it with the characters is emphasized in the last part of the book, and yet I got confused by his introspection on his dreams of the baby he and Morganna could have together. Meanwhile, she's left to brood and worry over it, and he never even makes inference of how this problem could be solved. Just a small hole in the plot, but it bothered me. Once again, I may have missed something?
Overall, if you like Lora Leigh and her bad boy alpha characters, I believe you'll like this book. Lots of hot sex, high action and intrigue, and a hefty dose of true-love conquers all. If you haven't read her before, this is also a good initiation book into Lora Leigh's less-than-vanilla romances.
Book Review: Could have benefited from an editor
Summary: 3 Stars
Reading this book makes me wonder just how much publishers are outsourcing work to India (a trend in book publishing). This particular book was either never copyedited (or at the least, not checked for consistency/continuity errors) or copyedited by someone with little to no experience. As reviewer TacP mentioned, the boook abounds with these kinds of errors (and like TacP, the constant flipping between Clint's background in the Army and/or the Navy drove me crazy). There's a willing suspension of disbelief, and then there's sloppy writing and/or editing-proofreading. Not to mention the numerous typos and grammar errors. This book suffers from them all. (One major sloppy error that struck me -- the last dramatic scene in the book, the "show down," has Clint staring into Diego's face. Which is odd, considering the Diego character is nowhere near the scene of this particular event. Roberto is. Inexcusable error.) If publishers want consumers to hand over good money for a book, the least they can do is have someone edit or proofread it before it goes to press. The book also suffers from trying to be a few different things at once, and failing. It's basically erotica (porn, whatever you want to call it) disguised as a romantic suspense. But if you take the book as a whole, there are 10 pages of porn for every 3 pages of actual story, which makes the book very unbalanced. The basic story (alpha guy sets out to rescue/tame/protect alpha-wannabe girl and whole lots of bad guys are standing in the way) isn't bad. I wish that side of the book had been better developed. Instead, the supposed plot of the book is just a weak backdrop for the author to serve up scene after scene of cliched erotica. It wasn't believable, or credible. The book might have been stronger had it been written as pure erotica, or pure suspense. A stronger writer can meld the two beautifully -- Anne Stuart does it marvelously well with her Ice series. This book is not of that calibre. I put books into three categories: retail buy, used book buy, library borrow. This book falls into the last category. Had I bought the book, I would have wanted a refund. I might give the first book a try, just because I'm curious about Reno and Raven. Maybe that book is better written and edited.